Rotten Tomatoes is running good early on for it, but I notice that some comments popping up mention Depp being a bit off on his effort. Seems like one line of views is basically "Burton creates a beautiful world but Depp's choice to play Wonka in this manner is a distraction".

Not everyone is saying it of course.

If it can stay 75%+ when a lot of the major reviews start adding on at RT then I'll certainly be checking it out.

That makes his opinion stronger for me. This is an adaptation of a wonderful BOOK, not a remake of (IMHO) a mediocre '70s film. I'm a big fan of Roald Dahl and I've been hoping that this will be a much better adaptation, but I certainly haven't warmed to what I've seen of Depp's performance.

I saw this movie Monday night and I really liked it. Talk about weird. Good, but very Tim Burton weird. I liked this version better than I liked the original, which to me always seemed kind of corny. Depp is very eccentric (as one would think that a recluse would be) and the kids are all very good. And of course it's always fun to the Christopher Lee (that's not giving anything away since you see his name in the opening credits). I say check it out. I think that this movie will delight some people and make others very mad. But be that as it may, check it out it's a very odd yet fun movie.

A lot of mixed feelings on my part. I enjoyed the original book very much, and I also enjoy the 70s version. I like some of Burton's movies, but I also think he's made some lousy ones. Still up in the air. Guess I have more RT and general internet reading to do on it.

Well if you read the book and were expecting a perfect movie translation, I can see how you might be a little disappointed in the 70's version. That aside though, Willy Wonka stands on its own as a great movie.

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This might be a little off-topic, but it does apply to this movie since it is being screened as IMAX in some areas (mine included): since an IMAX screen is a 4:3 aspect ratio, are IMAX presentations really just side-cropped versions of the actual widescreen version? I would hate to think I'm missing out on part of the picture if I see the IMAX presentation.

I've wondered this about my 16:9 version of Super Speedway too...since the original IMAX was 4:3, did they crop it to make a 16:9 version for home use?

I never saw the Wilder version as a child, so when I first encountered the movie for real when the DVD came out, I was actually underwhelmed. Listening to the commentary about how the film was meant to help "market" Wonka treats (but failed) made me more cynical.

I never read the book, so please correct me if I 'm wrong - my understanding is that Wonka loathes children, and the inclusion of the other children (Veruca Salt, etc.) in the tour is a cautionary tale for life lessons. Charlie is a humble child in spite of (or because of) his surroundings, making him the ideal choice to inherit the factory.

Cartoon parodies such as Family Guy and Futurama took the most vivid elements of the (no pun intended) sachhrine-y Willy Wonka version (I take that back!) and made them more palatable to me. I think Burton's vision will be worth seeing, since he's going more closely to the book.

I almost rolled out of my seat watching the Mike TeeVee segment, great homage, indeed.

The IMAX version, even with it being letterboxed, will be around 4 times larger than a conventional theater's presentation. It's big! Don't worry about the OAR issues, because there is no OAR issue (due to the letterboxing).

Since I live in just on the outskirts of Atlanta, my crowd got the funniest reaction when it was shown that Violet's hometown was Atlanta, GA.

Some people may say that Depp was the star of this movie, and others may say it was Freddie Highmore or Tim Burton. While I apperciated the contributions of all three, I thought that the biggest star of the movie was Danny Elfman, after the end credits revealed that he sang and wrote the music for all of the musical numbers.

They weren't even remotely close in style to the kind of music that I like, but they were the highlight of the movie for me. After the first one, I was excited about every Oompa Loompa music scene, and none of them were disappointing. I couldn't understand all of the words, but each one was unique, catchy, and featured wonderfully choreographed movements by the Oompa Loompas.